Best FREE software continued...

Web Browsing

Mozilla Firefox

The premier free, open-source browser. Tabs, pop-up blocking, themes,
and extensions. Considered by many to be the world's best browser.


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Video Player / Video Podcasting

Miro

Beautiful interface. Plays any video type (much more than
windows media player). Subscribe to video RSS, download, and watch all
in one. Torrent support. Search and download from YouTube and others.


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IM - Instant Messaging

Pidgin

Connect to multiple IM accounts simultaneously in a single app, including: AOL IM, MSN, and Jabber.

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E-mail

Mozilla Thunderbird

Powerful spam filtering, solid interface, and all the features you need.


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RSS

RSSOwl

Solid cross-platform RSS client.

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Peer-to-Peer Filesharing

Cabos

A simple, easy to use filesharing program. Gnutella network.


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Gnucleus

A very good Gnutella search and download filesharing program.


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Azureus

A powerful, but complicated BitTorrent client. So many features you'll lose your mind.


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Video Playback

VLC

Plays more video files than most players: Quicktime, AVI, DIVX, OGG, and more. Pretty good interface.


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MPlayer

Similar to VLC-- plays loads of video formats.


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Media Player Classic

Compact, but powerful media player. Plays anything under the sun. No install necessary.


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DVD Ripping / Video Conversion

Media Coder

Great tool for ripping CDs, DVDs, etc and converting between tons of video formats.


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Word Processing / Office Suites

OpenOffice.org

Big, full featured suite of tools for word
processing and spreadsheets. Compatible with and a free replacement for
Microsoft Word documents. Also supports OpenDocument Format.


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AbiWord

A word processor. Leaner and quicker than OpenOffice. Compatible with Microsoft Word documents and OpenDocument Format.


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Podcasting

Juice

Solid podcasting client.


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DVD Ripping

Handbrake

DVD to MPEG-4 ripper/converter.


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Sound Recording

Audacity

Simple sound recording tool.


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Graphics / Photo Editing

GIMP

Photo editing application that rivals Photoshop in features.


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Paint.NET

Graphics editor with a very nice interface.


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Inkscape

Vector graphics application.


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FTP / SFTP

Filezilla

Excellent FTP program.


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IRC

X-Chat 2

IRC client.


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Best FREE windows freeware

Note Taking

Freemind

An innovative application for note taking and outlining. Takes time to get used to, but some people swear by it.


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Jarnal

Open Source note taking application written in Java


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Keynote

Open Source note taking application, very good. I use this myself extensively


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Personal Finance

TurboCASH

Simple, easy to use application for managing personal finances.


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Quasar

Easy to use Accounting package


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Chat Clients

aMSN

MSN Messenger client written in TCL/TK aMSN Messenger

X-Chat

IRC Client
X-Chat

More Web Browsing

K-Meleon

Fast, nice web browser.


Download Page

Amaya Browser for Windows

W3C developed web browser and editor for multiple platforms


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Screensaver

Electric Sheep

Immersive, trippy screensaver.


Download Page

More Filesharing

Frostwire

GNUTella client based on the Limewire codebase.


Download Page

Also see: Poisoned - Azureus

3D Graphics and Modeling

Blender

Powerful 3D Modeling software.


Download Page

Also see: Kerkythea (illumination engine) - Persistence of Vision Raytracer - Quesa

Stars and Outer Space

Celestia

Open-source 3D planetarium software. Akin to traveling through space (outer space).


Download Page

Stellarium

"Renders realistic skys in realtime." See what you would see if your city wasn't so light-polluted. Used in real planetariums.


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Also see: macORSA - Orbit Reconstruction, Simulation, and Analysis

Games

Marathon: Aleph One

Engine for Bungie's free FPS series Marathon. Play online, solo play
with rich original story, many total conversions and thousands of maps.


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Zombies

3D zombie strategy game.


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Armagetron Advanced

3D Tron game.


Download Page

BZFlag

First-person tank game.


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Battle for Wesnoth

Fantasy / Strategy Game


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Also see: Snes9X (SNES emulator), Frozen Bubble

Free File Hosting

CC Publisher

Host Creative Commons video or audio files for free on archive.org with this easy uploader.


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Security Tools

NMap

Easy to use port scanner for Windows


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Wireshark

Network Protocol Analyzer, formerly called Ethereal


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TrueCrypt

Creates encrypted virtual hard drives for extra security


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ClamWin

Open Source Anti-Virus. Very good at detecting viruses. Can be plugged into hMailServer for e-mail protection
LIMITATION: Real Time scanning not implemented yet


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Eraser

Delete files securely off your hard drive utilizing DoD standards


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MP3 and Audio Tools

MP3 Gain

Easy to use MP3 manipulation tool for Windows. adjusts sound levels on MP3's so they are all the same


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MP3 Book Helper

This program provides rapid Mp3 (ID3v1, ID3v2)
and Ogg/Speex/Flac Vorbis tags editing and file renaming functions.
Mass Tag editing is done using special variables and Regular
Expressions.

Download Page

musikCube

Open Source MP3 Player, ripper and organizer written using the .NET Framework


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Utilities

Cobian Backup

Backup software.

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7-Zip

File archiver.

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Developer tools

XEmacs

The classic, super customizable editor, for Windows.


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KompoZer

Easy to use, open source WYSIWYG html editor


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SharpDevelop

Open Source IDE for the .NET Framework. Utilizes the multiple programming languages and Windows forms


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Notepad ++

Open Source programmers notepad for Windows


Download Page

SciTE

Source code Editor for Windows and X


Download Page

Web Developer Server Suite

Very good WAMP Stack (Windows, Apache, MySQL, PHP) Very thouroughly
tested on Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2000 Server (preliminary
testing on Longhorn Server underway). Highly Recommended.


Download Page

Mapping Tools

Nasa World Wind

Mapping tool similar to Google Earth for Windows. Must have the .NET Framework installed.


Download Page

Other

Graph (graph plotting software)



Startup Manager (pick what you want to launch on startup)



freeotfe "on-the-fly" transparent disk encryption program for PCs and PDAs.

New list of stuff i found on the net !

GAMES * * * * *

TetriNet2 Homepage

www.tetrinet2.com/

Discoid Interactive (www.discoid.com)

www.fibreplay.com/

The Fyrad 32 Home Page - Connect Four for Windows

http://hem.passagen.se/peters/fyrad/

Paralazia Games - Hookworm 2000

www.paralaxia.com/

Hypervisual Century

www.Hypervisual.com/century

Armageddon Games Network (Zelda)

www.ArmageddonGames.com/

ZeldaClassic.com - The Official Home of Zelda Classic

www.ZeldaClassic.com/





WINDOW UTILITIES * * * * *

Xteq Systems Homepage (X-SetUp)

www.Xteq.com/

BIU's Software House (Icon Digger 2000)

http://soft.biugates.com/home/

SnadBoy Software (Revelation & TopDesk)

www.SnadBoy.com/

Lux Aeterna (Speaking Clock)

www.lux-aeterna.com/clock/



INTERNET TOOLS * * * * *

Evrsoft - Creators of 1st Page 2000

www.evrsoft.com/

Opera Software - the Best Internet Experience

www.Opera.com/

iSpeed - TCP/IP Optimization Utility Information

www.hms.com/ispeed.asp



FILE-SHARING * * * * *

File Sharing Revolution Headquarters

www.napstermp3.com/

UGO.com - An Underground Guide to Napster Alternatives

www.ugo.com/channels/features/napsteralts/

The Official Bit Torrent Home Page

http://bitconjurer.org/BitTorrent/

ShareAza

www.shareaza.com/

WinMX - The best way to share your media

www.WinMX.com/

MusicCity.com

www.MusicCity.com/

iMesh - Sharing the world

www.iMesh.com/



MEDIA * * * * *

RealNetworks - The source for all your Internet media needs

www.Real.com/

WinAmp.com

www.WinAmp.com/

1001 Wimamp Skins

www.1001WinAmpSkins.com/

Sorinara - Home Of Soritong and SAP

www.sorinara.com/

Sonique Web

www.Sonique.com/



CDex Home Page

www.surf.to/cdex/

VirtualDub

www186.pair.com/vdub/index.html

bbMPEG's Home Page (AVItoMPG)

http://members.home.net/beyeler/bbmpeg.html

VCDHelp.com

www.vcdhelp.com/



GRAPHIC UTILITIES * * * * *

SpinWave

www.digfrontiers.com/

Anix Software (PicViewer Lite)

www.AnixSoft.com/

Satori (SatoriPhotoXL)

www.SatoriPaint.com/

HotFreeware (20/20)

www.HotFreeware.com/

HotDog Web Editors

www.SausageTools.com/



SYSTEM & FILE UTILITIES * * * * *

AVG Anti-Virus System

www.grisoft.com/

ScramDisk - Free Disk Encryption Software

www.scramdisk.clara.net/

SysInternals Freeware

www.SysInternals.com/

Hyper Splitter 1.1

www.downloadoholic.com/netsoft/

Freeware.prv.pl (Directory Lister)

http://skorczyl.webpark.pl/freewarez/index_en.html

Outer Technologies (Cacheman)

www.OuterTech.com/

LionTech (ResThief)

http://users.pandora.be/liontech/Download.htm



OFFICE TOOLS * * * * *

Contact Plus Corporation - Home of Customer Relationship Management and Utility Software (Task Plus)

www.contactplus.com/products/freestuff/

My Corkboard screensaver

www.MyCorkBoard.com/

Woody's Office Portal (WOW)

www.wopr.com/

GraphTablet

members.home.net/michaeleve/graph.htm

Clinical Laboratory Software (Graph Paper Printer)

http://perso.easynet.fr/~philimar/



ACCESSORIES * * * * *

The Enigma Homepage - Anti-Telemarketing Software

www.verinet.com/~geoff/Enigma/

Progency Software (Peep Show Lite)

www.progency.com/

Tumi's Cursors

http://brod.pfri.hr/~astamac/cursors.html

Decreasing Windows XP Boot Time

Microsoft has made available a program to analyze and decrease the time it
takes to boot to WindowsXP

The program is called
BootVis

1. Uncompress the file.
2. Run BOOTVIS.EXE
3. For a starting point, run Trace / Next Boot + Driver Delays
4. This will reboot your computer and provide a benchmark
5. After the reboot, BootVis will take a minute or two to show graphs of your
   system startup.
6. Note how much time it takes for your system to load (click on the red
   vertical line)
7. Then run Trace / Optimize System
8. Re-Run the Next Boot + Drive Delays
9. Note how much the time has decreased
10. Mine went from approximately 39 to 30 seconds.

Configure for Auto-Logon

If you are the only person using the computer and what to have it
automatically log you on,

1. Start / Run / "control userpasswords2" - no quotes
2. Uncheck User must enter a user name and password to use this computer

Creating a Shutdown/Reboot Icon

WindowsXP has a program called SHUTDOWN.EXE which allows you to easily create
icons to shutdown or restart your computer.

To create a shutdown shortcut on the desktop:

1. Right click on an open area of the desktop
2. Select New / Shortcut
3. Enter in "shutdown -s -t 00" - no quotes
4. Press the Next button
5. For the name, enter in anything you like. I just use shutdown. Click on
   the Finish button.

For a reboot, enter "shutdown -r -t 00"

Shutdown [{-l|-s|-r|-a}] [-f] [-m [\\ComputerName]] [-t xx] [-c "message"] [-d[u][p]:xx:yy]

Parameters

• -l - Logs off the current user, this is also the defualt. -m ComputerName
  takes precedence.
• -s - Shuts down the local computer.
• -r - Reboots after shutdown.
• -a - Aborts shutdown. Ignores other parameters, except -l and ComputerName.
  You can only use -a during the time-out period.
• -f - Forces running applications to close.
• -m [\\ComputerName] - Specifies the computer that you want to shut down.
  
• -t xx - Sets the timer for system shutdown in xx seconds. The default is
  20 seconds.
• -c "message" - Specifies a message to be displayed in the Message area of
  the System Shutdown window. You can use a maximum of 127 characters. You must
  enclose the message in quotation marks.

d3dx_??.dll missing ?

This message is commonly found while starting direct X applications such as games. This is one message a software pirate should be aware of. This normally happens with ripped off games wherein the games installed version is given out instead of the games installation itself. All you have to do is hit up the message in google, go to one of the sites, and then place the downloaded dll file into the folder in which you have the game. This is normally caused due to programs which remove fake files to free up disk space. Eg : System Mechanic

 

This message is normally followed with consecutive error messages of the same kind, so this is a pretty iterative process. Once you have all the files, you are ready to rock!

Alternative : Instead of placing the files within each games' folder if you have it missing in many games, you can place it in a system wide directory such as c:\windows\system32. This will ensure all games have access to these files.

Running Programs in Windows Compatibility Mode

 

Often times we don’t have the option of updating a software package when a new operating system comes along. Trying to run legacy software in a new operating system has always been a challenge, but XP does make it a bit easier and may have the solution for balky software. If you have a program which is crashing under XP but worked well under a previous version of Windows, give Compatibility Mode a try. Follow the steps below.

Navigate to the directory that contains the program executable.
(For this example I’m using WinZip)
C:\Program Files\Utilities\WinZip
Right click on the program executable (it ends in .exe) and click [Properties]
A screen similar to the one below should appear.

Click the [Compatibility] tab to open the WINZIP32.EXE property sheet.

Click the [Run this program in compatibility mode for:] box and select the operating system you wish to invoke compatibility for from the drop-down menu.
If you want to place restrictions on colors, screen resolution, or visual themes pertaining to this program use the appropriate check boxes.
Click [Apply] then [OK] to exit the property sheet.

Test the application and if necessary change your selection to a different operating system until you find the compatibility mode which offers the greatest stability.

Enable/Disable Notification Area Balloon Tips

 

This tweak disables the annoying balloon tips that appear adjacent to the Notification area.

The [Notification Area] is on the right side of the Taskbar, adjacent to the Clock display.

1. [Start] [Run] [Regedit]
2. Registry Key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
   Modify/Create the Value Data Type(s) and Value Name(s) as detailed below.
3. Data Type: REG_DWORD [Dword Value] // Value Name: EnableBalloonTips
4. Setting for Value Data: [0 = Balloon Tips Disabled / 1 = Balloon Tips Enabled]
5. Exit Registry and Reboot

IRC

<KekS>
what were you looking for?

<Shashank>
i dunno how this irc thing works dude !!!

<Shashank>
i need help understanding this irc.......

<Shashank>
and when i finally connect to anyroom full a lackeys, it comes with a message saying this room is moderated, signup with blah blah first

<KekS>
theres servers connected to each other forming a network - you connect to one of them and join channels in which people are and chat :D

<KekS>
channels have modes like +m which doesn't allow people without voice/op to talk

<KekS>
or +M which means you'll have to be authed with the servicebot of this network -> Q

<KekS>
You can´t REGISTER nicknames on QuakeNet - you can AUTH with Q (the Main Servicebot on QuakeNet). You might also want to read the FAQ ( http://www.quakenet.org/faq/faq.php?c=1&f=51#51 ) before using /msg Q hello your@email your@email

<KekS>
:D

<Shashank>
alright.but i filled up the thing in the same format and the bots started showing all sortsa errors.....dunno whats the deal

<Shashank>
do i have to sign up on some sites?

<Shashank>
to enter their irc channels?

<KekS>
nope some channels are just invite only (+i) or password protected (+k) or you have to be registered which means you have to be authed with Q to join (+r)

 

This was a conversation I had with a pretty helpful mod at #idsoftware...it helped me a lot....hope will help you too....peace